The invention concerns a method for improving the performance of a computer system, in which method resources, such as the main memory or processing time, are released by automatic or user-initiated deactivation of automatically started programs or program parts or programs or program parts running in the background that are however not system-relevant or currently not utilized. These resources are then available for the programs or program parts that are actually being used.
In the following, performance is to be understood as the overall computing or processing power of a computer system. The user notices the processing power in particular by the speed at which programs and updates of the operating state are processed, like start-up, shut down, restart, and hibernation.
The processing performance of a computer is limited and depends on the hardware (e.g., the processing speed of the processor, the size and speed of the physical main memory and the read/write rate of the hard disk). The available processing performance of the hardware must be shared between all programs running on the computer—a job which is called “multitasking” and is carried out by modern operating systems like Microsoft VVindows®. The more programs share in the processing power at the same time, the smaller the proportion of the processing power that is available to each individual program and the longer the response time of the computer for reacting to inputs in a certain program and for processing commands.
If the programs installed on a computer could share the processing power only when the user starts and actually uses these programs, the number of installed programs would have no effect on the speed of a computer. However, in reality it has been found that there is a relationship between the number of installed programs and the speed at which a computer responds and works.
The reason for this is that operating systems like Microsoft Windows® enable programs to link up at certain extension points EP with the processes of the operating system. Many programs register themselves during their installation at one or several of these extension points EP in order to be started automatically by the operating system when certain events occur without the user having to start them manually (“autostart”). The parts of a program automatically started in this manner often continue to run in the background in order to make available certain functionalities to the user or the program (“background functionalities”).
As a result of this, programs that have registered themselves for autostart with one or several extension points EP use up the limited processing resources of the computer without any user action (and often without the user even knowing).
In this connection, the following relationships are to be observed:                a) The more programs have registered themselves for an autostart during the system start, the longer the system start will take.        b) The more background functionalities are running during operation on the computer system, the less computing power is available to the user and his currently used programs.        c) The more background functionalities are running at the time when the user gives the command for shutting down the computer, the longer the shutdown will take because the still running background functionalities must be terminated before shutdown.        d) The more background functionalities are running at the time when the user gives the command for hibernation mode, the longer it takes to enter into the hibernation mode, because the operating state of the running background functionalities must be transferred from the main memory onto the hard disk.        e) The more background functionalities had been active at the time when the computer system was switched to hibernation mode, the longer it will take to return the operating state of the system state from the hard disk to the main memory.        
Many computers are already delivered by the manufacturer with a huge number of pre-installed programs (“OEM software”; OEM=original equipment manufacturer) which means generally that already at the time of delivery numerous autostarts are registered and numerous background functionalities are operative. From the start, the processing power of these computers is already taxed correspondingly more strongly and the buyer cannot use the full computing power of his hardware.
Moreover, most users over time install additional programs on their computer which results, in turn, in the performance resources being additionally stressed, when these programs register autostarts and provide background functionalities. Users that have little technical experience are therefore under the impression that the performance of their computer decreases more and more over time.
In the past, these problems have been solved in different ways. Often, new hardware was purchased because the user assumed that hardware performance of the existing system was insufficient. Regularly, the operating system was installed anew and some of the programs preinstalled by the hardware manufacturer were eliminated so that an acceleration of the system was achieved. A further possibility resides in uninstalling programs that are not required. This is done advantageously by using uninstall routines provided by the operating system and the program manufacturers (for Windows®: menu icon “software”, “add or remove programs” or “programs and functions”—depending on the version of Windows® in the control panel). Uninstall software is also used at times, like the TuneUp Uninstall Manager, Revo Uninstaller or similar solutions. Advanced users manually switch off individual entries registered at the extension points EP, for example, by means of the system configuration program (“msconfig”), the menu icon “Services” in the control panel or the menu item “Scheduled Tasks” or “Task Scheduler” (depending on the version of Windows®) in the control panel of Microsoft Windows®. Tools like “Sysinternals® Autoruns” or “Windows® Defender” can be used also for this purpose. Some commercial software tools permit to disable software entries at the extension points EP that are not required by most users and that are listed on a list of known entries. This is done, for example, by the software “TuneUp Optimize System Startup and Shutdown”.
A disadvantage of most of the aforementioned solutions is that intervention by a user is necessary. Inexperienced users can make the system unstable or inoperative when activating faulty settings.
It is an object of the present invention to free up system resources of a computer system operating under the operating system Windows® (version XP and newer ones) and to improve thus the performance perceived by the user, in that programs that the user does not need in the actual operating state are deactivated and reactivated when needed.